Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan’s ‘A Nonsense Christmas’ duet is a pop queen moment. Here’s how it came together.

Sabrina Carpenter’s holiday special delivers quite the convergence of newly-minted pop queens.

In A Nonsense Christmas With Sabrina Carpenter, now streaming on Netflix, the “Espresso” singer flung open the doors of her fictional holiday house to her fellow member of the new guard of pop music, Chappell Roan.

The women, who bonded over their meteoric rises to fame in 2024, came together for a real moment in the special as they duetted to George Michael’s “Last Christmas.”

Jason Sherwood, the Emmy-winning production designer for the special, which shot over Labor Day weekend in front of a live audience, told Yahoo Entertainment there was big excitement when Roan agreed to the guest spot because “the whole summer … was all about them being the sort of ‘it’ girls.”

His job was to create the right setting for them to come together.

“We were like: What’s the moment? Is it them on the big staircase? Is it this big performative thing?” Sherwood said. “They both came back to the team being like, ‘We want to do something that feels a little more informal [and] kind of chill.”

Sherwood created two main sets for the special: One was a cozy home decked out for the holidays, which he described as “Sabrina’s kind of Christmas house meets the Friends set with the little kitchenette.” It had a working fireplace and the perfect spot for Carpenter to whip up an “Espresso” martini. The second set was a supersize red layer cake stage that spun around at the finale to reveal a 22-foot-tall grand staircase that Carpenter danced on.

The decision was made to have the two pop powerhouses come together in the cozy, intimate living room set — only after a big ole party in the house. There were solo cups, empty booze bottles and decorations hanging from a thread around them as they sang.

“This idea of it being the end of a party came through,” said Sherwood, who won Emmys for designing the sets of the 2020 Academy Awards and Rent: Live. “We took this old TV that we have in the living room set and ran an 8-bit, old karaoke video with the lyrics [to] ‘Last Christmas.’ They stand there holding corded microphones that are attached to the TV.”

As for the living room, that was “pristine and beautiful” at the top of the show, “we trashed it, and they came down the stairs barefoot in party dresses,” said Sherwood. “It’s part Euphoria, it’s part ’80s movie — like the end of an ’80s prom. Then they sing and play and dance together — and it’s such a nice moment. It’s probably my favorite moment in the show because it speaks [to] the essence of what we wanted to make.”

Sherwood said the special — which also sees Carpenter duetting with Shania Twain and features cameos from Cara Delevingne and Quinta Brunson — was a whirlwind. He was hired in July, one hour after his initial interview, and just four-and-a-half weeks later, they were shooting, which is “not a lot of time” to bring grand sets like these to life.

Carpenter, who produced the special, was “very [hands-on] from the get-go,” Sherwood said.

“Sabrina is really clear — and so is her team — about what the aesthetic ethos of her world is. It’s really easy to design for an artist like this because you know what you’re dealing with,” explained Sherwood, who has also designed projects and performances for Sam Smith, the Spice Girls, Camila Cabello and Cynthia Erivo. “You know the identity, you know the reference points, you know the tone, you know what the styling is going to feel like. She has such a clear sense of self as an artist and for the fans that it’s super easy to say this does or does not feel like the right idea.”

Sherwood loved taking the idea of the classic TV special — inspirations included Marilyn Monroe’s 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 1954’s White Christmas, Judy Garland’s 1963 Christmas special and the Cher variety shows from the ’70s — and modernizing it, but not too much.

“Sabrina is a young person, a contemporary pop star and a burgeoning pop icon and to do a whole show with no technology around her — no video screen, no [pyrotechnics] — and have it really be a throwback pushed through a [modern] lens was such a fun challenge,” he said. “A lot of people just aren’t asking for that anymore. … We’re used to watching pop stars perform in front of, like, 60-foot tall video screens.”

Nonsense also gave Carpenter — who’s known for her playful performances, where she ad-libs lyrics and gets cheeky — the opportunity to showcase her je ne sais quoi appeal that her fans have gone wild for.

“She is simultaneously like: perfect hair, beautiful styling, so put-together, but also really accessible to her audience,” Sherwood said. “We wanted to capture both — to give the audience her at the top of a big set looking so glam, but then also winking at the camera and telling a cheeky joke.”

The special is loaded with comedy sketches — written by “an amazing writing team who have all done Saturday Night Live and all kinds of great stuff,” said Sherwood — that pair perfectly with Carpenter’s personality. One includes the newly single star excitedly inviting her new boyfriend over to meet her friends. When he shows up, it’s Santa Claus, which Carpenter is oblivious about. (Sean Astin plays Santa.)

“It’s Christmas themes pulled through her contemporary woman, kind of vixen … persona,” says Sherwood. “It’s Christmas with a wink.”

A Nonsense Christmas With Sabrina Carpenter is now streaming on Netflix.

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